Shade of Grey
by Rose O'conner
Summary: 10,000 years could not stop his quest... the infinite layers of the Abyss could not contain her greed... Only one thing stood in their way. And the only key to him... was Raven.
1. Ground Zero, The Negetive Energy

Forgive me if there are a good deal of errors but I have not had a mid-night strike of inspiration in a long time and I really don't want to use what little energy I have right now in typo hunting. I might get to it in the morning. I apologize of the shortness of this chapter as well. I intended it to be longer but the stopping point I have seems like a good one. Read. Review. Critique. And yes, go ahead and flame, so long as you realize you're wasting your time in that endeavor.

Disclaimer: The Teen Titans are of course copyright DC Comics. Many of the references to things planer in origin are taken from the RPG D&D which is copyright Wizards of the Coast.

"What is it exactly, Robin," Cyborg asked grimly. The T-car sped along, keeping place with the spiky-haired teen's motorcycle as both raced to an indicated disturbance. His friend's voice crackled back over the com-link.

"I don't know, but what ever it is, it's big and the cops can't get near it. Some sort of energy field… and it's getting bigger."

"Think it's Slade?" the big mechanical boy asked, trying to feel out his friends mind set.

"Something this size… it could only be him…"

"But…" Cyborg questioned sensing the hesitation in Robin's voice.

"I don't know… it just doesn't _feel _like Slade."

"Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut. We should be prepared for anything."

The control panel suddenly began to beep anxiously at the cars occupants, alerting them to the newly detected energy field. Robin was right, it was _big_. Raven glanced at it from her seat on the passenger side and noted the location.

"The old docks, 42nd district. They've been shut down for repairs for a while."

"Perfect place for a bad guy to work his trouble." Cyborg commented.

_Or to just get away_, Raven snipped mentally, a little miffed that some villain had decided to take up residence in one of the few quiet, private places she had outside of the tower.

The nimble motorcycle darted around a corner in the blink of an eye and Cyborg had to snap the steering wheel with force to keep up, jerking Raven from her brooding. She came back to reality, focusing her sharp eye on their surroundings and scanning for any more surprises. But one thing caught her eye. Though barely glimpsed in her peripheral vision, it was enough to distract and even unsettle to normally un-shakable girl. A night or two ago it would have been something to just marvel at, maybe even enjoy, but tonight it seemed like an omen. Rising just above the city, caught in the glare of light and a layer of smog, the moon rose full, bright… and crimson.

The two vehicles raced and darted through the streets, navigating the fastest rout to their destination with a purple clad Tameranian following close behind. Usually the switching leads would have been an invitation to a little racing competition, but the atmosphere settled heavy on the city tonight. Even the normally chipper Beastboy seemed unusually silent. All watched the gloomy city, waiting and thinking. They had entered the docks district Cyborg was weaving his way around the empty shells of warehouses when he unexpectedly had to slam on the brakes. The car skidded and swerved As he fought the wheel for control, and eventually coasted to a stop only inches away from… um… well he didn't really know what it was. Heaving a sigh of relief, he opened the door and stepped out to inspect the strange anomaly.

Some sort of shell of energy had enveloped one of the abandoned buildings. It was like nothing he had ever seen before; it stretched up over the tall warehouse and had begun to take up more than it's fair share of street, putting its measurements at well over 40 feet in height and 60 feet in width. Its dark surface swirled and danced, crackling and now and again giving an angry buzz. It seemed to radiate darkness, or more accurately, suck away the light. Occasionally a streak of red would dance spastically across the shell sending flares of the dark energy shooting outward. Cyborg took a step back as one came a little too close to his face for comfort and made a mental note to move the T-car before they investigated further.

The others were congregating now. Robin had pulled up and cut the motor, Starfire had landed beside him and Beastboy and Raven were climbing out of the T-car.

"What is it?" Robin asked wide eye as he strolled up next to his large friend.

"Dunno, I've never seen an energy field like this. I couldn't even say what's causing it…but my guess is, it's in that building."

"It's kinda cool in some weird spooky sort of way," Beastboy said, sidling up on the other side. He cocked his head to one side, studying it, trying to see past its cloudy surface. There was something on the other side but he just couldn't make out what. He began to tentatively reach forward.

"Don't touch it," Raven said drifting forward, "it's a neg-" She never got to finish her sentence. A deafening crack sounded off only a few feet from the companions and the red streaks darted in faster than the eye could follow. A surge of energy struck Beastboy the second his hand brushed the face of the shell, sending him hurtling back nearly twenty feet with a trail of blood sailing after him.


	2. Warehouse of Horrors, Enter the Demon

"Beastboy!" Starfire shrieked, flying to the side of her injured friend and Raven levitated close on her heels. The green one sat up shakily, trying to keep his balance as he regained his senses. He was trembling badly, more from the insane amount of adrenalin that had been dumped into his system than anything else, but the blood loss wasn't helping either. Starfire touched down beside him and gestured for the bleeding hand he was cradling.

"Wha…" he started, trying to form a coherent sentence through the daze, "What was that?"

"As I was trying to say before, it's a field of negative energy," Raven said, floating a few feet away, "You're lucky."

"Lucky?" Beastboy squeaked incredulously, eyeing his injuries. They weren't electrical burns as one would have expected but actual open wounds; as though someone had taken a knife a stabbed wildly. Even his glove was shredded.

"Yes," Raven quipped, "You could have lost much more than just a little blood. I said not to touch it."

"I was curious."

"Curiosity killed the beast."

"That's curiosity killed the cat," Beastboy corrected as he braced himself against Starfire and stood.

"Still a beast," Raven retorted and turned away.

"Is it just me, or is she crabbier than usual?" Beastboy pouted as he watched her retreat back to their friends.

"She is merely concerned for you," Starfire soothed her companion's bruised feelings along with his torn flesh.

"Concerned for _me_? Why?"

"You are her friend, why not?" Beastboy silently conceded this point and the two of them started back after their friend. Cyborg had just finished fishing out a first-aid kit from the back of the T-car when they approached. He turned and eyed Beastboy with worry before handing the box off to Starfire who promptly set to work.

"You okay B.B.?" asked Cyborg

"Yeah, I'll live," Beastboy replied, then flashed an impish grin to further defuse the tension. It worked, and Cyborg sighed and relaxed.

"They are just flesh wounds," Starfire confirmed.

"Okay, Raven," Robin said, trying to get back to business, "You know what it is, do you know how to stop it?"

"Cyborg's guess was right on. Whatever is causing this is probably inside. We have to find a way in that doesn't involve physical contact," she said, studying the outside layer.

"So…" Beastboy interjected, flexing his newly bandaged hand to make sure everything was still in proper working order, "what exactly is a… whatcha call it?"

"Negative energy field."

"Yeah, that."

Raven took a deep breath. "It's a little complicated to explain entirely so, in a nut shell, negative energy is a very dangerous type of energy that originates from the Negative material plane, one of the inner planes which are manifestations of the basic building blocks of the universe. It fuels and heals undead creatures and hurts living ones."

Robin and Beastboy exchanged a quizzical glance then looked back at Raven.

"Undead?" Robin asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Like zombies?" Beastboy added, then held out his arms and started walking stiffly towards Cyborg moaning, "Brraaaaiiinss! Braaaaaaaiinss!"

Raven shot a glare at the goofball that went either unseen or completely ignored then said,

"Among other things, yes."

Beastboy continued to stagger towards the large Titan making a mockery of him self. Cyborg chuckled and rapped on his steel plated head with his knuckles.

"Go ahead and try it, you won't get very far." The changeling stopped and started to laugh.

"Yeah, right!" he jibed, "Even if I got past that thick skull of yours, I could never find a brain!"

"Why you little!" Cyborg took a mock swing at the howling boy who easily danced back out of the way. Robin ignored his teammates' shenanigans and focused back on the topic.

"So how do we get through with out getting toasted?" Robin asked.

"If we can't go through it, let's just go under it," Beastboy suggested and morph himself into a gopher to emphasize the point. Raven shook her head at the suggestion.

"It's too risky. Negative energy can just pass right through inanimate material. What we see as a dome might actually be a globe."

"Okay, any other suggestions?" Robin questioned, turning to the rest of the Titans. Raven paused and considered it for a second before giving a tentative answer.

"I… might be able to channel a positive energy field to cancel part of it out… but it'll be small, and I won't be able to hold it for long."

"How long is long?"

"Twenty seconds… maybe thirty?"

"It should be enough, we'll try it. Titans, get ready. Raven, go." Raven nodded her consent then drifted close to the swirling crackling dome and touched down. The angry buzzing seemed to move close and intensify in her presence and she wondered briefly just what sort of effect her demon blood had on the strange field, but she quickly shoved all her frivolous thoughts aside. She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on quelling her emotions. It was difficult, standing this close to so much negative energy; it seemed to draw on her emotions, amplifying the strong destructive ones like hate, sorrow and fear. But one familiar, lulling chant banished these things away.

"Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…"

All things fell aside, leaving nothing but a blank slate on which to draw her power. Again she concentrated, searching her mind for the right key to draw on. She found it, a warm, glowing, pulsing energy that began to fill her when she called on it. Again she spoke her words, this time as a focus to cast this spell.

"Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos!"

And suddenly the energy became visible, radiating outward from her, and parting the angry negative energy with a nearly explosive force.

"Titans! GO!" Robin's constant catch phrase sounded and in the Teen Titans darted, through a gate of death. Safe on the other side of the violent sphere, Beastboy paused to catch his wind and take a look around. What he saw made him want to run screaming back out to the other side. All he could do to keep the contents of his lunch in his stomach was swallow hard and pray. The others saw it too. They stared in shock and disgust at the gruesome scene before them. Starfire gasped and took a couple steps backward, bumping right into Raven who had just stepped through her own portal. Starfire shrieked in surprise, then blushed realizing her mistake. The dark girl shrugged it off then peered around her comrades to see what everyone was gawking at.

Lying on the ground were the things that beast boy had not been able to make out through the cloudy mask earlier: the bodies of dead people. Most of them seemed to have had their soft tissue ripped away. Many had shattered bones leaving parts of them scatters a few feet away from the actual corpse they belonged to. The entire scene was bloody and disturbing. Raven stooped and examined a body near to her, looking at what was left of its tattered clothes. In the bloody soaked pile of rags she found something she had been dreading, a badge. She felt a knot form in her stomach.

"These were police officers," she announced grimly, "They must have been caught in the field when it was first expanding. They never had a chance."

"The field did this?" Beastboy asked in an awed voice, then looked at his injured hand,

"She was right, I was lucky."

"There's nothing we can do for them now," Robin said putting on a stoic face, "We need to stop what's causing this before it happens to anyone else."

"Yeah, let's go kick this guys butt, whoever he is!" Cyborg chimed his opinion loudly.

"Yes and let's let him know we're coming," Raven remarked off handedly as she drifted passed him. Cyborg sulked then stalked forward.

"We're wasting time, let's go!" As one the Titans surged forward and began to advance on the abandoned warehouse. Its windows had been boarded up, but the five teens could see a strange red-violet light bobbing and swirling through the many cracks. As they neared they could hear the sound of several voices chanting softly and steadily in what sounded like Latin. Robin motioned the other Titans close to him then begun laying out a battle plan.

"Cyborg, Beastboy, take the back entrance," he whispered, "If there isn't one, make one." Beastboy and Cyborg grinned at each other. "Star, Raven," Robin continued, "You're with me. We take these guys quickly and by sur-" Robin was cut off by a sudden booming voice that rumbled the streets and shook a few boards loose from the windows.

"Alath, Malduah, MALKAT!"

"Look out!" Raven cried, spinning away from group and scanning all about, trying to discern the magical vibrations that came flowing out of the warehouse. Too soon it preformed its dire purpose. As soon as the waves touched the butchered corpses, they sparked with negative energy. The crackling died away, and the dead came to life. Or rather _un_life. The bones clattered to their feet or those who were missing legs hobbled and lopped awkwardly or just dragged themselves across the pavement, all moving towards the startled Titans. The most disturbing thing was the sound. There was no unearthly voices cackling or moaning for brains, only the sound of bones scraping against the blood slicked ground.

Starfire yelped suddenly as a wet claw grabbed for her. She spun instinctively and hurled a sphere of energy at the grasping offender, shattering it and sending a hail of blood and bone fragments flying over the team. The sudden action shocked them all out of their daze and they each started their familiar attack routine. Raven levitated into the air and began to pick up and hurl the skeletons away, sending them crashing into walls and the pavement. Beastboy morphed into a crocodile, snapping at the jostling bones. Those that didn't just shatter were easily shaken apart in his powerful jaws. Cyborg and Starfire launched a series of energy blasts taking out more than their fair share of the undead, and Robin quickly dispatched the rest of them with his bo staff.

Inside, the voices had risen above the clamor and gained a fevered pitch. Something about it sounded strange. The voices trembled and one of the chanters stuttered half way through. These people were scared.

"Let's take 'em now! There's no more time!" Robin commanded and the Titans charged forward. Not even the chaos out side could have prepared them for what was in here. Cyborg charged his cannon and blasted the doors away. When the dust cleared enough to see, they were met with an even more terrifying sight than the one outside. In the center of the empty warehouse, a large circle had been drawn with several runes etched around it. This is what was giving off the strange unearthly glow. A chanter stood before each rune, and as their voices gained in fervor, so did the intensity of the glow. About six more of the figures stood off to one side, watching the procession, and everyone of the people in this room where shrouded in the same black white and red hooded robes. But they were not the ones the Titans noticed.

Standing coiled around the ceremony was a monstrosity that could only have come from the Abyss its self. The creature's lower half looked to be nearly thirty feet in length and resembled a centipede. Its black shelled plating continued upwards onto a massive dark skinned humanoid torso but this was the only thing resembling a human. Two pairs of arms extended from the upper body; one was proportionate to the rest of the body and ended in wicked looking hooks, but the other pair were even more massive than the chest. Four fingered hands were at the end of these and each finger turned into a scythe like claw half way down. From its shoulders stretched a thick, spined, serpentine neck and topping it was a smooth black skull with an unsung lower jaw full of jagged saber sized teeth that jutted out. It leered at the intruders and its deformed mouth twisted into what could only be guessed as a smirk.

"Xazanae!" Raven whispered hoarsely. The Demon's grin broadened.

One of the chanters broke off and stumbled backward when he saw the Teen Titans enter the room. He looked scared shitless and with good reason. The creature's head snapped around and four cold dead eyes focused on him.

"Finish it!" its voice sounded like cracking thunder and sizzling acid at once.

"But… But master they'll-" his please were cut off when the thing slammed his colossal hand down onto the stuttering man. Grunting in annoyance, it scooped up the new corpse and hurled it at the teens. They ducked out of the way of the grisly thing, but the creature hardly cared.

"Ariel, finish it," he said turning to one of the figures standing to the side. It nodded and took its place where the first had been standing.

"Stop!" Robin commanded, "Enough! We're not going to let you hurt any more people!" he sprinted forward, slammed his staff into the ground and vaulted into the air, aiming a flying kick at the new chanter. The others flinched and stumbled over their versed as they watched the enraged boy sail at them but this one did not falter in the slightest. Not even when her (and the voice was female) master's claw swept down inches away from her as he went to bat the troublesome child aside. Robin went tumbling head over heels nearly into the concrete wall but Starfire was there to catch him.

"Are you damaged?" Star asked with concern.

"No, I'm okay."

"This thing is evil," she said forbiddingly, "it must be stopped."

"Agreed," Robin replied in an equally grim tone. Starfire touched Robin to the ground then went shooting forward, firing blasts of green energy at the towering monster. It shrugged off the blasts with a growl and casually swatted at Star as though she were just a somewhat annoying fly.

"Ariel, dispatch them first," the monster instructed. She nodded again and stepped back out of the circle, motioning for one of her fellows to take her place.

Beastboy had a different strategy in mind. He morphed a triceratops and bugled threateningly before charging the ensemble and Cyborg followed close behind, shooting warning shots over head. Though his movement was hampered by his injured forelimb, he was still able to maneuver as well as he had planned. When the monster slammed its hand down to smash the disrupter, Beastboy pulled short and skirted around the slower moving limb and side swiped the chanting circle. Two of the occultists screamed and broke away to run but quickly returned when they remembered that they could suffer far worse at the hands of the mighty demon. By now Ariel had started her own chant, summoning magical energy to her finger tips.

It was a simple but destructive spell and Raven recognized it immediately. She also saw whom she was aiming for.

"Beastboy, Cy, duck!" she cried then started into her own mantra. She didn't have enough time to counter it but she could get the spell casters attention. Beastboy and Cyborg heard their friends warning in time to dodge out of the way of a line of fire. The changeling smarted at his singed clothes but the two seemed mostly unharmed.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

An empty oil drum levitated into the air then hurtled at the other spell caster. She yelped and barely tumbled out of the way then scrambled determinedly to her feet. Ariel glared at Raven… and so did the demon known as Xazanae. His eyes flared to life with glittering malice, it had been a long time since something had stirred his ire this badly. His maniacal grin dissolved into a sneer and he hissed with wrath.

"You… insolent, disgraceful, HALFBREED!" he roared the last word, shaking the complex much more violently than he had before. A glob of acidic spittle flew at Raven and hit the concrete behind her, where it began to sizzle. He lifted a blade tipped hand and pointed it at her, growling out his incantation.

"Alath…Malduah…"

Suddenly, all hell broke loose.

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Wow, over 7 reviews in one day. That's better than when I was writing the Alex Chronicles, which is really funny 'cause the AC I planned out thoroughly, even with the help of another author and this thing I'm just pulling out of my ass from random half coherent ideas. Glad you like it but I have no idea why…

Anyway, I would have had this up sooner but ff.net was being a bitch to me. So with out further ado, let's get on with the rest of it.


	3. Chanting Circle, Ariel's Madness

Sorry about the wait, no planned story means random updates. If you're wondering why the rating jumped last chapter, it's because that was just the start of the blood. When you're dealing with demons, thing don't stay pretty. And for Tesina's question, I haven't really decided if there's going to be any actual fluff but I am a rather big Raven/BB fan so if there is any pairing it'll be Rae/BB and Rob/Star. Like I said I'm just making it up as I go.

Random note: Whee, demons who can cast level 15 lightning bolts are fun! …Not.

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"Alath…Malduah…"

"Raven!" Beastboy never thought about his next action but it was probably the only thing that saved his friend's life. He charged full on, lowering the wicked sharp trike horns and lining them up with the tree trunk sized lower body of Xazanae. At the last second he slammed home. The impact barely registered as pain to the demon but it was enough to stall his concentration and interrupt the spell. Beastboy, however, felt the blow all the way through his body. He hadn't counted on the armor being as hard or as thick as it was and had driven in with all the force he could manage. He staggered back, dazed and disoriented.

Xazanae growled ferociously and kicked a pair of legs out sending the green trike tumbling away and into a pile of debris. He started again into his casting but this time Raven was the faster. She pulled hard at the strings of invisible force that connected her the oil drum, and it jerked violently into the air sailing through the distance and into the larger demon's outstretched hand just as he let his spell fly. He jerked reflexively, not soon enough to interrupt the spell again but more than adequate enough to redirect it. Unfortunately it was now directed up at the barely stable ceiling of the dilapidated building. A snap of blinding light burst forth for his hand, stealing Raven's vision for a moment, and arched skyward in the form a enormous lightning bolt. It struck a beam dead on and tore through it like paper before continuing on to shatter the rest of the flimsy roof.

Raven gained her sight back in time to find a hailstorm of rock and debris crashing down around her. She formed a shield about her just before a particularly large piece tried to crush her as it fell. Xazanae was irate now. He bellowed, knocking more of the material loose and sending it plunging down onto the heads of his followers. Down below, total chaos had broken out. The people had withstood all threats until now, but the sky falling down on top of them was too much.

Screams broke out, the crowd panicked and dispersed, scattering in all directions. Anyone who wasn't fast enough to find their own route was trampled or knocked aside. Anyone that is, except the mysterious woman Ariel. She strode calmly through the terrified people, even waltzed through the crashing wreckage of the ceiling with out so much as a blink. As she neared the blasted doors that hung on battered hinges she began to whisper out an incantation. She stopped in the door way, blocking off the only path to the outside and spun about to face the half crazed mob. Shouts of protest and a few profanities rang out at her, and a desperate group of people tried to merely shove their way past her. Uttering the last word of her spell, she flung her hands outwards in a violent gesture and a wall of invisible force burst out, flattening the offending individuals to the ground and knocking back those others that had closed in too close. The blast had also knocked back Ariel's hood and as the others regained their footing they could see the despising sneer plastered across her face that marred and perverted her otherwise beautiful features. She cleared her throat and frowned down at her follows like a school teacher reprimanding an unruly classroom.

"Cowards," she hissed in a silky tone, "Run. Run away if you will. I can see that your minds and hearts are not strong enough to complete our ritual. You are not deserving of the power we were about to summon. You fools, did you believe you could be harmed? Look there!" and she pointed to the hulking beast who had taken to swatting a tiring Starfire around like a ping-pong ball, "Do you see? Those Teen Titans are powerful, more so then you or I at this moment, yet our master treats them as nothing more than flies! We have nothing to fear! But the foolish among you may flee if they wish."

She stood aside to reveal the open, inviting door. All but one hesitated.

"You're insane, Ariel," he growled. He stepped forward and, standing inches away from the glowering woman, he reached into his robes and pulled out the fine gold chain and pendant that had hung there and tore it from his neck. He tossed it to the ground and scowled back at her. "Go ahead and stay here with your stupid magic tricks and delusions, I'm leaving." With that he shoved past her and sprinted for the exit.

"I hope you all burn in hell with your… _master_!" he called over his shoulder as he plunged into the darkness of the night. Once out on the pavement he didn't slow for anything. It felt so lifting to be out of that hell hole. He raced on not caring what the consequences would be, anything, he was sure, would be better than being crushed alive in the name of some faceless entity. As he neared the crackling wall he lowered his head and threw his arms out in front of him, thinking to charge straight through it. Nothing could compare to the shock and pain he felt from the forcible jolt that ran through his body. Too late he realized his mistake and try as he might to stop nothing would be enough. The momentum carried him forward into the wall of sadistic energy and it tore away at his flesh and bone alike.

The last thing anyone heard of him was a blood choked scream that cut mercifully short.

She crouched on a roof top a few hundred feet away from the strange bubble of force. The demon was there, there was no doubt about it at all. She had banished or slain more than her fare share of his kind in her short lifetime. This would likely turn out no different, but she hoped she would at least get a little information out of this one before he turned on her. Sighing and casting a glance at the grinning face of the moon, she stood and stretched her legs. She never like dealing with ones this powerful, they were always so cocky. But the seer had said the one that could lead to the end of her quest would be here tonight, and there was definitely someone there.

Just as she had set her mind to finally intervene with what ever diabolical scheme this demon was hatching, a sudden crack and a brilliant light burst forth from the enshrouded building. She shielded her eyes against the brightness and watched the lightning bolt climb high into the sky before dissipating.

"Great," she muttered to herself, "This is gonna be fun." She scooped up a sheathed sword that had been laying by her side and strapped it securely around her waist then rested her hand upon it's hilt. A sudden wave of calm and assurance washed over her and she closed her eyes and smiled slightly, enjoying the familiar feeling. Reassured by the confidence of her life long friend, she stepped along the roof tops and leaped out over the expanses that separated her from her destiny. Just as she neared, she heard the scream and watched in disgust as a fleshless, blood soaked skeleton fell through the crackling barrier of energy.

"Demon," she growled, "this ends now." She gripped the hilt of her sword and drew it. She felt the surge of excitement run through it and into her finger tips as its highly polished blade flashed into view, catching every light and throwing it back a hundred times brighter. It almost seemed to glow in the moon light, promising death to any darkness. With her face set to a stoic frown, she pointed her blade to the crackling wall and steeled her self against the battle of wills that was soon to come.


End file.
